The Real Chiraq
I Love Chicago. To me, Chicago is the most beautiful city in this country. I love having the opportunity to not only spend so much time there for my work (Residential Boundary Surveyor) but to be so intimate with it’s many beautiful neighborhoods. Everyday I get to interact with people from different parts of the world. I get to experience different perspectives and observe different cultures.
It really is such a beautiful place but unfortunately, it has fallen on dark days. The increased violence in Chicago is something that the majority of its citizens take seriously, though they may feel powerless to do anything about it. I think that’s why, though I am a resident of a south suburb, I and many more got a bad taste from an upcoming motion picture.
After seeing the trailer for the Spike Lee movie Chiraq I'm left with a feeling of rage. I get that feeling one gets when they feel they are being mocked. When someone is deliberately trying to get you angry. That's the feeling I get.
One would expect a movie trailer to entice an audience to go see a movie or in some desperate attempts, to give a badly made movie a chance for an audience to fork over their money to watch it. However, after I saw this trailer I got more of a sense of a producer capitalizing from real life tragedy. I believe Spike Lee is a man who who could have used his power of influence to shed real light on a horrific problem however I feel more as if he’s just profiting off the violence and terror in the streets of Chicago and throwing it into a fictitious world where the solution to the violence is for the women in these war ridden neighborhoods to stop having sex with the men?
Seems like a joke to me. Seems to me as if the real purpose is profit and nothing more. I don’t doubt that this movie will have great reviews once it’s out. Spike Lee, if nothing more, entertains and I know those who are ignorant to the real fear, hate and heartbreak in these streets will go back to their homes and continue on their lives I know that just like the many other movies based on real events that have come out in the past, the parts of fantasy is what will remain in the minds of the viewer and the real tragedy will go on unnoticed to all not from the City of Wind. I know that after the theaters close and after all the money is counted the violence in the real Chiraq will continue."
I hear some people have a real problem with the tag that has been given to violence in Chicago. They feel as if it unjustly given. They feel as if Chiraq is only a marketing scheme for retailers and producers.These people who only watch from their televisions or hear about the shootings and killings on the radio may be right to an extent however year to date in 2015 alone there have been 390 people Shot & Killed: 2231 people Shot & Wounded: 2621 Total Shot and 440 total murders.
Now as a comparison to the number of Americans killed in Iraq, from 2003 to 2014, A total of 4,491 U.S. service members were killed. In Chicago from 2012- November of 2015 there have been 1,600 people shot and killed and 1,869 total murder. I think the tag is not only fair and accurate, I think it's horrifying. Horrifying to think that there have been more casualties in the streets of an American metropolitan area, more murders caused by fellow American citizens than there have been casualties of our brave soldiers that have engaged those who have been branded terrorist. So what does that make those on the streets of the South Side of Chicago? Do they not instill fear? Do they not murder for little to no reason?
Do they not cause civilians to run and seek shelter in their homes, to clear the streets as soon as the sun resides? Don’t our fellow citizens fear that their children will not grow to see adulthood?
Right now, a video is going viral of Islamic Terrorists, lining up and murdering 200 children. Children! This past week in Chicago 9 year old Tyshawn Lee was lured and murdered by gang members.
Are these murders so different?! I work almost every day in Chicago. I work in the most dangerous neighborhoods of the city almost daily and to think that if there are monsters walking around that have no conscious about targeting and murdering a child, then what’s to stop them from murdering anyone else? What’s to stop them from murdering me as I work ?
Oh, these are all gang related murders? Bullshit!
The truth is, if the violence was just amongst those deadbeats and criminals in this city, I don’t think there would be a real problem but a bullet doesn’t have a name on it. Thousands of people are shot a year in this city and there is no discrimination. Good along with the bad face this terror.
Women, Children, Black, White, Brown, it doesn’t matter! It has become normal for people to go indoors when the sun goes down. It’s Murder-O’clock! Activists are so quick to march at a story of someone in their community being mistreated by the authorities. They march, they riot, they burn their cities down until they feel they have been rightfully compensated for what they feel is injustice but where are they now!? Here where hundreds of members of their communities are being murdered, where are they?! Is this not injustice?! Not so much as a whisper is heard in these streets. The mother of Tyshawn Lee is facing criticism for using donated money for the funeral of the 9 year old to buy a car of the year. The father of the boy is not only refusing to cooperate with the authorities, he also has tried to start a GoFundMe to cash in the death of his son. This is reality. The negligence of all those who should care the most is reality!
Some may think that these stories are limited to the inner streets of the city that they are safe in the far north or west burrows. They are wrong. Shootings and killings are happening in all parts. Northside as well as the downtown areas are experiencing this violence. It has gotten to the point where people are being shot on the Highways driving into work. People are being shot and killed in the middle of the day. This is reality.
As for me, I continue to do my work. I walk down these streets and see first hand the people who are the cause of this bad dream. I see them stand on the street corners with no fear, peddling their drugs. I see them walk down the street with their pistols in their belts. I overhear their conversation of bursting into homes and burglarizing them. I see them in groups drinking beer and smoking weed when they should be working. I see youngsters banging and slanging when they should be at school. I see mothers more concerned with their appearances than their children and I see the CPD make that turn before entering the blocks they know damn well crime is happening in the open. They don’t get paid enough, they have families they want to go home to and though I shake my head at their choice to turn a blind eye, I understand. One can not defend a city that chooses to remain silent. One can not save those who will not try to save themselves.
This is what is keeping this city from waking from its nightmare!
It’s not a joke, It’s not a work of fiction and it is not a problem that can be solved with neighborhood women locking down their genitals. This isn’t a movie starring Nick Cannon and John Cusack. There isn’t a well dressed Sam Jackson walking the streets of the Chi narrating this story. This is real life and those who come here looking to be part of this hollywood production may find themselves become a statistic instead.
"Chicago, IL- 16 year old Ryan Wilson is dead after attempting to prank gang members in Chicago. Wilson, a young man from Chicago suburb Naperville, went to the southside of Chicago with a friend pranking random people. According to Wilson’s friend, the teenager approached a couple of Vice Lord gang members and said, “are you ready to dye”. Before the teen could pull out a bottle of Clairol hair dye to insinuate that he meant dying his hair, one of the gang members pulled out a .22 and shot Wilson multiple times in the head. "
This is real fear! People are dying, good people! Children are dying , Mothers are crying, fathers are praying and body after body are being placed in black bags. The streets are bathed in blood. Real Blood not movie blood and it is not going to be solved by a fictitious movie made by people who are not from Chicago, Acted by people who are not from Chicago with it’s hit song performed by a person who is not from Chicago!
This is not going to be solved by crocodile tears by drill rappers who in one breath preach to stop the violence and are being followed by their new hit single, “Kill everybody” This will not be stopped by military who will only take the freedoms of the good in return for security. This will not be solved by the politicians laughable gun control policies, Chicago having some of the strictest gun control laws in the country already.
This is will not be stopped by more police. The police in Chicago are in a tough spot as it is. Due to recent social media outrage against law enforcement officers, the police have become of little help. Even though there is a heavy CPD presence in the streets, it seems as if they are not willing to take the tough calls anymore. I’ve even seen some from time to time make the turns to avoid the areas with heavy criminal presence.
Who can blame them here in these violent streets where people are as quick to point fingers and pass blame as those who are quick to pull the trigger. Someone is always ready to be the next victim of police mistreatment. What a job it is to be an officer in Chicago these days. If the officers are too rough, they are passed as bigots and abusers of power. If the officers are too timid, There is backlash for not doing enough. When they try to pursuit leads against criminals, they are lead astray by those who either live in fear of retaliation or are unwilling to give up their friends or family members. So there they are, underpaid and asked to put their lives on the line only to be hated and judged for every and any move they make. No, the police have become more interested in traffic violators now, at least there they may live to go home to their families safe and without civil grievances being brought on them.
There is only one solution to stopping the violence in Chicago and that’s for the community to start treating these creatures as the scum they are. They have to raise the children that their parent refuse to raise. Tell children to do right. To get in school. They have to report criminals and murderers and drug dealers. They have to stand up and take control of their city. They have to take back their lives, if not for themselves, for their children. The City of Chicago and it’s citizens are in a war and it’s time for them all to make it known to the scum that they are ready to fight back and together make it Chiraq no more!
I am completely aware that Spike Lee’s Chiraq is a movie and I understand it’s for entertainment and that a movie can not be judged by it's trailer. It's not the making of the movie or the movie itself I have a problem with, though I think his recent appearance in defense of his film is a desperate attempt to stop a potential boycott of his movie, I think in the back of his mind he actually might have some compassion for the turmoil Chicagoan's face in the streets. face in the streets. My reasons for this essay is not necessarily against the making of this movie, though I do think it is a little petty to profit from tragedy. My problem is knowing that because this turmoil is being tossed into a fictitious story, in the minds of most people, the terror that is being felt in the streets of Chicago will be felt and viewed as hollywood movie magic and over embellished dramatization.
Peace be with those in Chicago. May the Universe bring tranquility and good fortune to them and their beautiful city and give them the courage to fight back.
Don't be afraid.... That ringing you hear in your ears is just a bit of ...
BRAYN NOISE